"Born to Run" is the signature song of the American singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and the title song of his album Born to Run.

Written in a small house in Long Branch, New Jersey in early 1974, the song was Bruce Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make it big. The prior year, Springsteen had released two albums to critical acclaim but with little commercial success. The lyrics to the song are appropriately epic for his last-ditch, all-or-nothing shot at the stars, yet they remain rooted in the universal desperation of adolescence. We gotta get out while we're young, 'cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run.

Written in the first person, the song is a love letter to a girl named Wendy (Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend I wanna guard your dreams and visions...; I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight/in an everlasting kiss!), whom the bike-riding protagonist certainly has the passion to love, but may not have the patience. However, Springsteen has noted that it has a much simpler core: getting out of Asbury Park.

In his 1996 book Songs, Springsteen relates that while the beginning of the song was written on guitar around the opening riff, the song's writing was finished on piano, the instrument that most of the Born to Run album was composed on.

In the time prior to the release of Born to Run Springsteen was becoming well-known (especially in his native northeast) for his epic live shows, and "Born to Run" quickly joined his concert repertoire well before the release of the album and was performed in concert by May 1974 if not earlier.